And here’s the last part of your final read & respond! You’ll be assessing your own work, based on the material you provided me. Based on the following examples, you’ll be voting (via this Google Forms ballot) on the following categories.

NOTE: If your name doesn’t have links, you need to provide them to me!

ALSO NOTE: You’re not expected to read all these links – you’ve already read a lot of your classmates’ work during reviews and commenting – just use them for reference!

Make a heat map

Create a new fusion table with the “population” file (click Next and Finish)

At the top of the spreadsheet this creates, there’s a map tab. Click this, and Fusion Tables will geocode the locations (states) you’ve provided as points

In a NEW window (important), go through same steps to create a second Fusion Table with “states.kml”

Go back into the “population” Fusion Table and click File > Merge

Select “states”

In the window, for “This table” select “Region” and for “states” select “Name” – click Next

Uncheck “description” and “id” and click Merge

To change from dots to shapes, click “change feature styles” in the left menu and select Polygons > Fill color

Select “Gradient” and in that window, select “show a gradient” for the “population” column”

Click “use this range” and click the plus buttons so there are five categories

You SHOULD get a map with states shaded in colors that are darker with higher population levels

To adjust those categories, go back into “change feature styles” and switch to the Buckets tab, click the “Divide into ____ buckets” button, change the number to 5, and adjust the categories (you’ll need to change the colors for this – I like to use colorbrewer2.org to find these)

Try searching for other state data and mapping it (use the filetype:.csv to help out)

For our final week, we’ll be assessing our own work. For this first part, you’ll need to provide me that work! First, give yourself a quick refresher of your best stuff (personal and group) this semester. Take note of the following:

Personal

Best two posts

Best headline

Best added content (maps, podcasts, etc)

Group

Best three posts

Best headline

Best added content (maps, podcasts, etc)

Submit your nominations using this Google Form ballot. We’ll finalize things and begin voting in Monday’s class. I realize this one came up pretty late, so do the best you can to complete it before class (as I said, it won’t take long). If you REALLY can’t swing it, you can finish up in class.